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I've owned a Vita for about a month now so I think that's a sufficent amount of time for me to get acquainted with the device. There is no blog system so I've detailed my thoughts below...

Hardware-wise, the system is nice. It features some of the most powerful mobile parts available today, features dual analog-sticks and has a functional D-Pad. I'm not head over heels over the OLED screen, though. While I do like the fact that colours pop on the display, I don't like the black smudges that appear whenever a dark scene is shown on the screen.

The game library isn't very good and has a shitload of ports. And sadly, there are hardly any notable upcoming games. But I didn't buy this game for Vita games but rather to play PSP games mostly so that isn't of major concern to me.

I'm a bit iffy on the OS. While it is definitely functional, the menu just comes across as cluttered and messy. The fact that there are no folders to organize your games most definitely contributes to that messy feel. The lack of anti-aliasing, however minor a concern, still irks me a bit too.

The fact that you can't multitask a game with the internet-browser is also a pretty big issue. I mean, for fucks sake, the 3DS already has that functionality. It kind of defeats the purpose of an internet browser on a gaming console if you can't use it while playing games.

Online functionality is leagues better than what I've seen on the 3DS. An account system, a decent storefront and proper messaging (I love you Swapnote but it's no proper IM system) are all welcome features.

In terms of extra functionality, I'm satisfied. The Youtube app works well (although I wish we could navigate channels), Netflix is fine, the Twitter app is decent...I could go on. I particularly like the video-playing capabilities. It plays pretty much anything I throw at it (and now with fw. 2.00, 1080p videos). Thanks to the size of the system, it's pretty much replaced my 10.1" tablet for watching shows in bed.

Visually, I'm not very impressed. Uncharted: Golden Abyss is a jaggy-fest with shitty textures and a sub-native resolution to top it off. Street Fighter x Tekken has a massive visual downgrade from the console versions (most notably in Chun Li's thighs!). Gravity Rush has a great art-style but certainly didn't "wow" me graphically. If I had to sum up the system's capabilities, it's roughly an Xbox with better shaders and slightly better polygon pushing power. Certainly not a portable PS3 and not the large gap over the 3DS that I expected.

Overall I'm satisfied. It's not the god-tier device that I was led to believe by some but it's still a pretty damn solid piece of hardware.

I don't like the black smudges that appear whenever a dark scene is shown on the screen.

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It's a flaw of OLED screens.
This is what's behind yours. They're all like this.

Warning: Spoilers inside!

Don't be too concerned though. As you mentioned, it's only ever discernible in dark scenes. Ordinarily it looks great,

Personally I'm just hoping that Vita's won't be victim to degradation over time as OLED screens tend to be. Contrast is great now, but if this is a generic OLED panel, it won't be as good after finishing just one long JRPG.

I don't think any reasonable person can hate on the Vita hardware, it's an upgrade in every way to the PSP and is just a very solid device.
The only valid complaints would be the selection of games which is all opinions anyway.

Games aside.... Some advice I could give Sony on their PSV successor:
- have a screen of higher ppi
- use analogs which can be pressed
- switch to IPS (although this is definitely self-preference. I dislike over saturated colors.)
- Tweak the set so that people with large hands can play it more comfortably.
- Allow FULL backwards compatibility please

The Vita isn't so bad really. Sony has been aggressively improving the Internet browser in the 2.0 update and I'm quite impressed with that. However, I just see myself leaning towards the 3DS more because of the games. I'm not saying UHHH VITA HAS NO GAEMS BLAH BLAH, but the 3DS just has more of my likes.

There seems to be more good games than I can afford. Rayman origins little big planet both are pretty awesome but who wouldn't want more great games. I certainly think the vita blows the doors off the 3ds. The 5" screen is the perfect size, dual analog is great. When I'm playing a really good game it's obvious that the Vita is the best handheld ever made by a long shot. I still love my 3ds of course you can always find things to complain about but on the hole I'm pretty impressed with what Sony accomplished

It is fully backwards-compatible. If you're talking about putting a UMD drive into that thing... Wait, where are all my lynch torches...?

UMD is dead. Leave it burried.

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It isn't though.
Last I checked anyway.
There was even a kerfuffle at the Vita's launch where they had to pull a PSP game from their playable list because it wasn't actually playable, don't quite remember which game it was.

Think it's around 300 playable games out of nearly 3000 games.
Though to be fair, most of those 300 are all the notable/good PSP games anyway so it's not that big a deal.

This was last I checked though, should be more now, maybe it is all of them now and I'm horrible wrong, ahaha.

I have a few theories on why the Vita is doing poorly, but the main one is that consumers in general seemed to have lost a lot of faith in Sony and in particular Sony portables. I don't think the Vita costs that much more than the 3DS, at least not enough to be a deal breaker like it has been.... It's not like it was priced at 599 US dollars or something.

It really is a shame, the machine itself is fantastic. Maybe that rear touch panel thing is kind of weird and custom memory cards is kind of a bummer but those two things again are not deal breakers in the slightest. The perceived lack of games real or imaginary is bad and equally will do a ton of damage.

Great review of a great system!!! Like the Dreamcast it will be a shame to see it go that is if it doesn't cling to life and make a comeback somehow although at this point I would say the odds are getting stacked against it.

I really do wish Sony would do something to encourage developers to start making games for the Vita. I've played them at stores where their on display and they seem really nice. I'd buy one in a heartbeat if it had some good games. Also, I haven't really seen much Vita advertising. The seen TONS of 3DS commercials but I hardly ever see Vita commercials. Sony needs to get their console out there.